Winners announced in 14th annual Scottish Home Awards
The winners in Scotland’s national competition which recognises excellence in the Scottish new build housing sector have been announced following the return of a live celebration dinner held in Glasgow last night.
Over 350 people gathered to celebrate winners in The Scottish Home Awards in a hybrid event that also welcomed guests from home watching live via digital broadcast.
The programme, sponsored by Ross & Liddell named developments, homes and organisations which clutched the trophies after more than 130 developments in 18 categories were assessed.
Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes collected the top award of the night, Housebuilder of the Year (more than 100 units), for presenting their robust business results which had customer service and employee care at its core. They also collected the Community Contribution Award sponsored by AICO for their work during the pandemic.
Living by Robertson won Housebuilder of the Year (less than 100 units) for a second year in a row after showing further success delivering new homes in Edinburgh in Leith and The Jewel.
Celebrating two awards, Caledonia Housing Association won Housing Association of the Year after impressing the judges with a new ‘hub’ structure and digital investment and also collected the award for Social Housing Developer of the Year.
Caledonia own and manage over 4,600 socially rented homes in 8 local authority areas. Also collecting awards in the social housing space were Renfrewshire Council who collected the Affordable Housing Award Social Rent for their development work at Johnstone Castle.
In Edinburgh, Craigmillar Town Centre collected the coveted award for Regeneration of the Year by the City of Edinburgh Council and CCG Scotland. Cala Homes collected the Large Housing Development of the Year for Waterfront Plaza in Leith and Queensberry Properties won Apartment Development of the Year for Bonnington Mill.
House of the Year went to the Everett Grand by Robertson Homes in Jackton, East Kilbride and also in the West, Maryhill Locks Phase 4 collected the prize for Innovation in Design.
Invertay Homes won two awards for their Summerfield Avenue development in Dundee and in the Borders, Eskgrove Homes won Small Housing Development of the Year for Linton Bank in West Linton.
In the highly sought after Residential Letting Team of the Year, sponsored by Citylets, Western Lettings in Glasgow collected the award for the first time after increasing their managed property numbers by 24% over the year.
Queensberry Properties, the sister company of Cruden Homes, won the award for Apartment of the Year for their beautiful riverside Bonnington Mill apartment development, adjacent to the Water of Leith in Edinburgh.
Andrew Cunningham, chair of the 2021 Judging panel and managing director at Ross & Liddell, commented: “Ross + Liddell are very proud to support The Scottish Home Awards in its much needed celebration of success in the housebuilding industry. The ability to reward individuals and teams working within the private and public sector at a time which has been exceptionally difficult, is very pleasing. The detail in the entries reviewed reflects hard work and commitment within the housing sector in Scotland to succeed with quality and customer care. Congratulations to all the winners!”
Hazel Davies, sales and marketing director of Queensberry Properties, said: “We are absolutely delighted to take home the Apartment of the Year award. It is great to receive the recognition by industry experts and our peers for our approach in supporting the regeneration of communities at Bonnington Mill, which transformed a brownfield site into highly sought-after contemporary homes. This award is a reflection of our team’s dedication and expertise in delivering truly bespoke new homes.”
Julie Cosgrove, chief executive at Caledonia Housing Association, added: “I am always proud of the contribution made by each and every member of the team and I am thrilled that their efforts have been recognised by the prestigious Scottish Home Awards. These awards are further proof that Caledonia Housing Association is continuing to make a positive impact on the lives of our tenants.
“To be nominated and win at any time is an achievement, but to do so when our operations were impacted by COVID-19 is a real testament to all of our dedicated staff who have worked tremendously hard to continue to make a difference.”
Douglas McLeod, regional managing director for Barratt Scotland, said: “I am bursting with pride and admiration for our hard working team at Barratt and David Wilson. It has been a challenging couple of years for the housebuilding market as we’ve adapted to lockdown ways of working, making this win all the more special. We have worked tirelessly in these difficult times to create long-term employment opportunities whilst also repaying all furlough money to the government, as well as continuing to onboard new apprentices.
“The commitment from the entire team is unrivalled, which is why we continue to set the standard within our industry. I’m particularly proud of the community contribution award as we strive to give back to people living in the communities we help build. These small donations go a long way to making a real positive change to those most in need.”
Welcoming the Show Home of the Year award, Artisan’s regional sales manager Christie Turner said: “The Canonmills Garden show home and marketing suite was conceived, created and delivered during one of the most challenging periods in recent years for the Scottish homebuilding industry. When it was launched during the easing of lockdown in August 2020, it made a powerful statement about the resilience of the local homebuilding market, and, as a result, became a popular destination for buyers looking to be inspired by the possibilities of post-lockdown living.
“It provided the perfect base to reintroduce the human touch to the home sales process after months of lockdown. Once the show home was open to the public, we conducted guided tours following full safety procedures – which included cleaning the show home thoroughly after each tour. This allowed us to work a lot closer with customers on the ground and has so far included almost 700 individual tours all conducted in a safe and controlled environment.”
The full list of winners can be found here.